Boston Computer Society - Sinclair Timex User Group Newsletter

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BOSTON COMPUTER SoOcIiBtTy
Ey Newsletter of the BoSTUG (Sinclair/Timax User Group) §
s Vol 7 No 3 8s

EDITOR'S HOTBS

1 apologize for the tardiness
of thie issue of the BoSTUG

newsletter. Part 1g due to
delays in receiving contribu-
tions; part is due to ny

moving, which has scattered my
life in three directions an
explaing come sloppiness in
the layout.

Agatn we have a range of
offerings, but from only a few
contributors.

The goad news is that we have
halted the decline in ST ueer
group membership - up one to
157. The bad news is that
less than five percent of the
membership participates in the
activities.

Over a hundred of us itive
within Interstate 405. We
would like to know what we are
doing right and what we can do
to be righter. A call from
you ta me at 889-0830 would be
a big help. Ve don't want to
lose you so long as you retain
an interest in the Sinclair
computer of your choice.

Another bit of newa tn the way
of support for Sinclair Timex
users is the announcement from
the goesip mill that a number
of dedicated ST users are
banding together to form a
National or even North
American S/T user group.

Editorially we applaud thie
move, although it 16 about
three years overdue.

Some advice: my expertence
with the ST User Group here
suggests that about 20% of a
mambership wil) participate in
an activity, but only 5% will
become actively involved.

RBoSTUG Sinclair/Timex Newsletter

We wish the National Sinclair
Timex User Group early success
aad encourage all BoSTUG
members to join.

DIRECTORY
Co-director Peter Hale
889-0830
Co-director John Kemeny
263-3347
General Questione John Kameny
263-3347
Machine Language John Kemeny
263-3347
Hardware Library Lee Ball

Lee, what's your PHOWE?

Software Library Jim Rodlin
481-2155
Editor (pro tem) Peter Hale
889-0830
QL sub-Group Peter Hale
889-0830
Plexi-~BBS 648-7661

Sysop: Bob Cutter 646-4425
TIMEWARP (BBS) 481-0565
Sysop: Jim Rodlin 481-2155

Member Services
Liason Willi Stackman
547-0655

The Sinclair/Timex Newsletter
ts the official publication of
the Baston Computer Society's
Sinclair/Timex User Group
(BOSTUG).

Membership is $35.00 per year
from the Saciety at 1 Center
Plaza, Boston, MA 02108.

The newsletter maintains an
exchange policy with Sinclair’
Timax User groups willing ta
reciprocate. Please forward
exchange issues to the editor,
Peter Hale, at P.O. Box 8763,
Boston, MA 02114.

Unless copywritten by the
author, articles are in the
public domain. Attribution is
requested.

~ ae May/June 1988

TABLE of CONTEETS

Editor’s Notes L
Directory 1
Letter to Editor 2
2066 Windows, Part II 3
Psion Productivity Tip 5
Text87 — A Review 6
RamDisk for QL (program 6
2066 Telecommuntcations

Notes 10
SuperBaSIC for BEGIEMERS
PRINT 1n
Query on ABACUS 12
Going Online, T/S Style 12
Calendar Notes 13
Sing a Song of Silliness 14
Sinclair Fests Abound 15
QL Sold Out? is

One Meg Expansion for QL 15

LETTER TO THE BDITOR

Congratulations for ane of the
finest (tf not THER finest),
and most informative User's
Group Newsletter, that I have
seen. I am a connoiteseur of
newsletters; therefore 1
should know whereot I speak.
1 get four different User's
Groups newsletters fron the
B.C.S., one from a dealer, two
froma MWational organization
one froma publisher tn Jew
Hampshire, and recently 1
bought seven itesues of QUANTA,
which I haven't been able ta
read yet.

The reason I
latest effort is

applaud your
because of

its clarity. As you know, i am
housebound and cannot attend
any of the B.C.S. meetings,
although I have been a member
for several years. 1 started
PC-ing with the 2ZxX-80; then

the ZX-81, when the ZX-80 des-
troyed ttseif.

I should have stuck
ZX-81 because after
things got complicated.

with the
that,

1 graduated to a CP/M machine
which couldn't do anything

BoSTUG Sinclair/Timex Newsletter

unless a couple of disks were
loaded into the mws of tts
drives. The tnstruction man-
uais were numeraus and not
written for the layman. It
could employ four different
Basic languages, which relied
on disk-ioaded operating cys-

tems. I never became conver-
Gant with any one of “hem
because a verttable haiti of
prograns on disks became
available through dealers who
bombarded ma with their

catalogues and I obtained many
from the Public Domain.

Then Sinclair cozened me tnto
buying a QL. I succumbed
because of my expertance with
the 2X machines, which I had
iearned to ragret abandoning.

I soon regretted my purchase,
howaver, chiefly because of
the weight, awkward bulk and
writing style of the User's
Manual. Terms ware used that
I couldn't understand and
there was a dearth of examples

like your “e.g.8" in the
article on using SuperBaSIC
‘COPY’.

The only fauit with your

article was that you did not
emphasize the need to read the
article with the computer OH.
It all seemed eo clear when I[
read it, but I didn’t teach my
hands to use the new knowledge
until much iater.

I am reminded af Sophoclea'
ancient dictum: "Although you
may think you know a thing,

you can never be certain until
you actually do it."

Mike Mitchell's (no relation)
experience with his QL is just
the opposite of mine. I've had
mine for two years - going on
three now - and have only
partially mastered Qutil and
if it badn’t been for your
Tax-i-QL, 1 wouldn't even have
tried to use Abacus.

T host

a QL subgroup meeting

-2- May/June 1963

on a bi-monthly basis, and
have benefitted greatly by
getting to know you and Henry

April and the others.

However, I don’t learn much at
the QL sub-group meetings here

because of my poor eyesight
and deatness, but 1 look
forward to them as a high

point in my dull existence.

1 keep comparing the QL to the
CP/M computer that I have and
the QL coms off "second
best”.

A disturbing slowness exiata
in Quill which causes some
funny effects when following a
fast typist. Furthermore there
are several features in ny
CP/M Perfect Writer word
precessor program that I wish
were in Quill. For inetance
there no Global Replace
ability which takes lass
than two seconds in a 14,000
byte letter in Perfect Writer.

is

(You may want to learn about
TBITS7, an review of which is
elsewhere. Ed.)

Likewise, I can move a block
of text marked at its begining

and its end with two key
strokes and cursor movement. I
agree that the same can he
done in Quill, but you have
to wait until each letter is
blocked out in white at the
rate of about 1 per second.

! haven't tried
blocks around
file, but 1 have
tion of one file
by deleting what
to move, naming
differently and merging. In
the Perfect Writer program
this is done with two windows
and ts very fast,

to move large
in a single
merged a por-
into another,
f didn't want
the portion

Keep up the GOOD work.

- John Mitchell
Westwood, MA

BoSTUG Stuclair/Timex Kewsletter

2068 WINDOWS PART II

Theary of VWindowing

Windowing is a display tech-
nique for dividing a computer
screen into separate, tndepen-
dantly controlled areas for
text, graphics or other forms
of information. This article
will explore techniques that
make windowing possible.

For windowing displays, a
number of problems must be
dealt with. First, screen con-
tents must be preserved when a

window is opened (Hot sil
windows do thia). Screen
preservation is called ‘'Hon-

deetructive windowing’.

One non-destructive technique,
discussed in the January,

1988, S/T newsletter involves
copying the entire screen into
memory before opening a
window, This mathod is
inefficient if more than one
window is tnvolved or windows
are more sophisticated than
stmple ‘pop-up’ messages. For
real windowing, we must find

some other mathaod.

Other problems a window driver
must handle ore: text froma
windaw must be confined within
ite window (no ‘apillage'),
text must be diracted to ita
proper window or the main
screen, overlap muet be
handled without distorting the
screen oar losing text, and it
all must be done QUICKLY.

The idea proposed
storing data in what
“window file’. It
with taxt, and it
the computer's

identify a character printed
on its own ecreen (ag.
SCREERS(Y,X)> for the TS 2068).

involves
I calla
only works
depends on
ability to

The structure of a window file
is basically a string of
display characters which
constitute the text in that
window, plus the text that the

3

May/June 1988

window is over lapping or
‘shadowing’:
Byte Defin- Notes
ition
1 ROW /-~ Upper left band

2 COLUMH \-- corner of windaw

3 WIDTH /--- Actual text area
6 is 2 lese than W,D

to take border
chars into account.

5S RPP...... row print position
6 CPP...cclumn print position

waD

(roa ears SSS sole see shoes: i
H :
‘ Window t
‘ t
i Text t
i i
(Sess essss-<7A2eSssss+S 55 t
Wad

{essesesoss-<se-s--4-56== t
Hy ‘
i 4
i Shadow t
H t
i Text a
i t
i i

A window file is created in-
ternally whenever a window ia
opened and purged when the
window ts cloged. To print to
a window, text is placed
directly in the window file.
A separate display routine
handles the actual printing
later by copying everything it
finds in the window file anto
the screen.

A window file's header con~
tainge six bytes signifying win-
dow position, dimansions, and
current print position within
the window. Print position is
updated by incremanting COL
for each character until the
right border is reached or a
CHRS$(13> (ENTER) is encount-
ered. In that case, COL = left
margin and ROW = ROW + 1.

Following the the

header is

BOSTUG Sinclair/Timex Newsietter

information that the window
holds. It is stored ao» strings
of text in tha order that they
appear in the window: Row 1
(Top line), Raw 2, Row 3 atc.
(Hote: WO Return characters
are stored in the window file
-- only spaces and letters;
the last character in row 3 ia

followed immediately by the
first character tn row 4).

Immediately following the
Vindow text file ia another
file, the Shadow text file.
The shadow text file keeps
track of the text that was

underneath the window when the
window was opened, in order to
create windows without cor-
Tupting the main display.
When 4 new window ia opened,
one of the firet things it
doea ia copy that part of the
screen (including ali text or
aven another window) into the
new window's shadow file.
Thua, when the window ita
closed, it knows what to put
back on the screen.

If you keep your window print
routine separate from your
screen update routine, you can
do some interesting tricks.
One idea is ta effect ‘hidden
windows’ by reprinting the
shadow file, causing the win-
dow to disappear while main-
taining
Hidden
ed, printed to, or
without effecting the
screen thia way. To get
window back it 1s only nec
sary to call the screen updat-

the window's content.
windows can be ecroll-
cleared
main
the

ing routine, and the window
will reappear instantly! This
is useful for viewing an
underlying screen display
without closing the window.
Just be sure to update the
shadow file before reopening

the window.

Scrolling a window is etraight
forward. Copy each row in the
window file onto tha one above
(or belaw) it and insert a
blank line in the last row.

~4- May/June 1988

Afterwards, call the c6craen
update routine to refresh the
display. Just scroll the
window one line at a time and
it’s a snap. Bi-directional
scrolling is pogsible this
way. Scrolling a window does
not affect the shadow file.

Gccasstonally the programmer
may wish to scroll the display
UNDERNEATH an open windaw.
This ie where life gats com
Plicated and the shadow file
gets put to real use. The
trick ts to handle the four
areas around the window
(above, left, right, below)
separately, and ta pay special
attention to the part that
scrolls behind the window.
For that, the tap row of the
Shadow file is copied onto the
line above the window, the
Shadow file is scrolled tnter-
mally and then the part of the
line just balow the window ie
copied into the bottom row of
the Shadow file. The sight of
a stationary window floating

above a scrolling background
is impreesive and worth the
effort.

Finally, ta close a window

just copy the shadow file back

onto the screen and purge the
window file.

Theoretically, the only limit
to the number of windows tn
use at once ts set by the
amount of spare RAN. Stace
window files store text only,

they are very memory effictent
‘A 10 by 30 character window
uses only 606 bytea including
the shadow. An equal portion
of the display file requires
2400 bytes, not counting color
attributes!). However, window
handling bacomes very siow if
more than 2 or
Open at once.

3 windows are

I have not yet tried ta
implement ny window files
concept with actual code. This
may change by the time the
hext issue of the newsletter

BOSTUG Stociair/Timex Bewsietter

comes out. If it does, 1 will
include a jisting with my next
article. I hope that this
discussion inspires a few of
you to try ta write a
windowing routine along these
lines. | suppose that a window
file could be stored as an
array or long string vartable
in BASIC (note: an array takes
SIX bytes for avery elemant
stored!) but I think a window
ariver wauld hava to be
compiled or written in machine
cade to be acceptable. What-
ever your preference, good
luck and Keep On Timexing...

~- Jim Rodlin
PSION PRODUCTIVITY TIPS

A limitation to Psion programs

is that file names my not
@xcead § characters. Right?

Wrong! We know that Quill
adda the extension " doc to
any file name saved from it.
This i@ useful in recognising

a file type by its extension.

However, you may give
three character
(ilacluding
symbols in
Quill file

any
extension

numerals and
any order) to a
and provided you
enter it as well as the rest
of the file nam, the file
will load.

The advantage in having more
characters to describe the
file will be obvious to anyone
with extensive correspondence.

JJones_304 might save a letter
to John Jones on March 4th.

The followup on April 15 might
be JJ415 etc or J5304_415 or
JJ415_&4& but never JJaaa_415.

Cautiaqnt You are on your own
indexing your correspondence,
Any index system must be con-
sistent. Don’t use extensions
which can be confused with
other file types.

- Pater Hale

-~8- May/June 1968

THXTA?7 —- A REVIEW

Rarely does software arrive on
the QL scene with a potential
for dramatic changes in the
way the computer ie ueed, but
TEIT8&7 ts such 4 progran.

I only recently received my
copy and am not yet familiar
With all its features. Other-
wise 1 would be uaing it to
write this newsletter.

Briefly it is a What-you-see-
ie-what-you-get text editor.
It offers all the features
that would have made Quill
unsurpassed, and gives up
little without paytng the
price of needing to reference

dozens af control codes.

lt has on-screen prompts and a
hetrarchical menu, much like
the Peion programe. It is
bappy under Taskmaster but can
bea multitasked with Control C.

First, you move around a large
document and move or erase
blocks of text very rapidly.

Second,
Design

you
the

instead of the Quill's
feature that commite
to certain parameters for
whole document, THKT&7
uses ‘rulers' that set
margins, tabs, justification
and line-feeds. Rulers can be
saved and recalled for later
use tn different parts of
documents or other documente.

Third, yau may have multiple
lines itn headers and footers.

Fourth, you may ‘Go to’ any

part of thea document directly
by specifying a line number,
and the range of cursor
controls is wider than for
Quill.

Piftb, (1 am always is favor
of a fiftb> Quill documents

may be easily imported through
a special routine. Other tart
files can also be imported in
a general routine. (cont po)

BOSTUG Sincilair/Timex Newsletter = 48'S

RANDISE for the QL

RAMdisking capabilities can
increase the versatility of a
computer by providing temp—
orary tile storage.
RAMdisk reserves o portion of
memory for files. Thereafter
you access the file the came
way you access it on disk or
on microcartridge. There are
two differencea: The device is
called ram as in ‘raml fred‘,
The other difference is that
access to the file is very
much quicker than to files
stored on magnetic madia.

A practical application
exporting and importing
between PSION programs.

le io
files

QDOS anticipated ram disking
and allows for up to @eight ran
disks to be addressed.

Of the two types of ranmdisking
the first ie called dynamic
ramdisking and creates eight
zero sectored ramdiisks. as
files are stored in a ranmdisk
ite size expands up to the
available {free memory in ram;
a ‘DIR rami_' sight show -22/0
for a file of 22 sectors. The
advantage ig that only as much
free memory is allocated for
ramdisking as ie required.

The other type, publiahed
here, is ao static randiek.
You determine how many sectors
you want when formating the
randisk. A certain amount of
gueasing is necesary.

Key-in the following Super-
BASIC program. There is a lat
of hex data but it would be
60% greater in decimal cade.

When dane, RUM the program
with a formatted cartridge in
mdvi_. Two things happen: You
create "ramdiak_bin", a binary
flle, and a SuperBASIC file

called ram_boot that loads the
binary cade and generates a
sample of ramdisking speed.

Moy/iune 1068

1000
1010
1020
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il7o
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kEMark Program reads 1n hex cades trom date ilnes & outpute them to a tile

RESTORE
OPEN WHEW #4,mdvi_ramdisk bin
REPeat readlaap
IF EOF THEN EXIT readicop
READ ats
pos*1] :1=LEN<as>
REPeat spacestripper
Sames pos
1F pos?l THEN HEXT readlaop
Pos=pos+ (aS$<(pas>=" ">

IF pos<(>same THEN NEXT spacestripper
bS=a8(pos TO pos+l?

IF bS$(2>=" " THEN bse" &bs (1)
pos=post2

values=0

FOR n=1,2

cd=CODE(bS<n)>
value%=value%+ (3-0)448 (cd-46-7% (cd264 AMD c4¢71)-398(cd>96 AND cd 103))
END FOR n
PRINT #4, CHRS(valuaes%);
END REPeat spacestrtpper
END REPeat readlooap
CLOSE #4
OPEN _WEW #4,mdvl_ ram boot
PRINT #4,°100 addr2RESPR(2048)"
PRINT #4,°110 LBYTES mivl_ramdiak _bin,addr"
PRINT #4,°120 CALL addr”
PRINT #4,°130 REWark In the next line, change the valve ‘100° to suit”

PRINT #4,°140 PORMAT raml_100"

PRINT REMark Setting up example filenames to demo DIR RANL_”
PRINT FOR a=i TO 10"
PRINT OPEN NEW #4,°RAM1 EXAMPLE FILENAME MUMBER: ' & a”

PRINT #4,"180 END FOR n"
CLOSE #4

10000 DATA * 61 20 43 FA 00 OC 34 78 O01 10 4B G2 70 00 4B 75 00 01 06 2E 07
10010 DATA " 41 40 SF 55 53 45 00 00 00 00 00 00 70 18 72 62 74 00 4H 41 47
10020 DATA * 00 1C 45 FA 00 F4 26 CA 45 FA 03 64 26 CA 45 FA 04 EB4 26 CA DO
10030 DATA " O00 OC 45 PA 05 48 26 CA 26 FC 00 00 00 24 36 FC 00 03 26 FC 52
10040 DATA ” 4D 30 41 E& 00 18 70 22 4E 41 48 75 70 03 2E 28 00 24 BF 4¥ EE
10050 DATA " 74 CO D4 87 60 00 01 DA 61 00 O01 BE 66 26 38 19 5B 44 63 1B OC
10060 DATA “ 00 29 62 18 20 3C DF DF DF FF CO 99 90 2A 00 14 BO AB 00 3B 66
10070 DATA " OC 19 00 SF 67 04 70 F4 46 75 4B B& OO 68 2E 09 3A 28 GO 1K 42
10080 DATA " 00 1B S2 68 00 1B 70 47 74 40 43 B& 00 58 61 4A 67 08 OC 40 FF
100G0 DaTA " 67 14 60 OC 36 04 22 47 61 00 03 B2 66 DE 70 F8 31 45 00 1B 4E
10100 DATA " 45 B& 00 58 70 12 42 62 51 C8 BP FC 22 4A 2A 47 34 C4 14 DD 53
10110 DATA * 6B FA 31 45 00 18 72 OF 74 26 1F 28 00 2C 61 06 11 SP UO 2C 4E
10120 DATA " 70 FF 48 &7 BF OC 4C D7 00 05 76 01 61 OH 52 80 67 F4 53 60 58
10130 DATA " 4C DF 30 FC 4B 75 1C 28 0O 1D 61 00 04 4A 4A 80 6D 00 00 BA OC
10140 DATA ” 00 40 65 00 OL 12 OC 00 00 4B 62 22 DO 40 30 3B 00 66 48 FB 00
10150 DATA " 00 1C 00 1C 00 20 00 24 00 18 00 66 00 A4 00 86 KK 1A 00 62 FF
10160 DATA " 03 96 70 Fil 4E 75 70 00 42 75 70 00 60 14 70 00 24 28 00 20 EF
10170 DATA " BE 8A 04 82 00 00 00 40 D2 62 69 1A 24 01 6B 20 Vo 82 OV OV 00
10180 LATA " 69 OF ED 82 69 UA D4 82 BE 4A BA AB 00 24 OF OF 72 00 24 28 00
20190 DATA " 70 Fo 60 CE 74 40 72 00 21 42 00 20 4K 75 20 3C $2 41 40 30 DO
10200 DATA “ 00 14 22 CO 22 FC SF 20 20 20 32 FC 20 20 22 14 70 00 4K 75 70
10210 DATA “ 60 7E 7A 03 OC 42 OV 40 OE OE ZF 04 61 16 24 5F 04 92 00 G0 00
10220 DATA " 4B 75 70 FC 4E 75 7A 07 60 06 7A U7 74 UE 72 00 78 00 38 24 OU
10230 DATA “ 67 00 FF 66 3F 04 cF 2 OU Z4 2F 25 VO ZO 42 64 LO 1E 21 6 VO

BOSTUG Sinclair/Timux Newsletter ee cs May/June 1904

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STUG Sinclair/Timex

Newsletter

66 24 1F 20 05
80 4B 75 16 28
75 48 C1 48 C2
00 67 0O FF 00
10 76 00 58 00
82 61 18 22 09
Of 22 1F 4B 75
03 6D 04 70 F6
00 00 8A 61 00
F4 08 08 30 2C
D9 52 44 08 04
AB 00 24 OD 2c
36 10 1D 12 Co
84 00 00 FE 00
00 67 04 70 FB
08 32 2C 00 02
06 32 2C 00 02
05 53 54 70 00
40 21 42 00 20
00 7A 00 S2 45
19 4B E& OO 68
FQ 4B 75 70 F5
00 6D E6 7C 00
44 00 20 4B E6
D9 51 C8 FF FC
20 21 46 00 24
02 67 1A 6B 22
41 00 24 70 00
88 60 5E 76 00
98 42 A5 59 40
5a BO 6D PF FE
75 C3 4D 12 35
20 4B 75 61 00
44 3k 28 00 12
08 1B 7C 00 FD
75 48 E7 OF &C
28 00 24 BF 48
08 70 13 4E 41
BE 01 40 34 78
OE 45 EB 01 00
75 2A 4B 49 ED
10 66 10 B2 2A
E2 7C 00 1C OL
40 70 19 4B 41
08 DE 81 22 4F
88 66 3E 4A 80
41 4A 80 66 24
00 00 40 42 98
F4 4E 75 61 00
5F SF 00 06 06
04 67 OA 20 50
36 B& 01 53 00
5C 72 03 D2 76
36 BB 02 6B 42
00 12 36 68 00
6B 00 58 DC 44
36 98 00 70 00

- Nike

May/June 19868

Mitchell

Jo how is this any better than
a decent editor?

One. Where
visualise
underlined
script on screen,
you visualise all type faces
including proportional, elite,
Ltalics and double-wide
through extensive use of red
white and green as well as on—
screen character spacing.

Quill lets you
bold, normal,
and high or low

TEXT87 lets

Numerous fonts are avatl—
able in the deluxe editton of
TRXT8&? and there is the
facility to design your own
fonts. These show on screen
and may be expanded up to
quadruple height.

Two.

Three. Normal printing uses
only the fonts available in
the printer, but TEXTS? also
has a screen dump to print out
in graphic mode to capture
averhigh characters and fancy

type faces.

Pour. TEXTS? comes
number af printer dat
covering a range of
types. You se@lect one to be
loaded on start-up after
configuring a working copy of
TEXT&? for your own use. But
1f you change printers, you
can change printer_dats fram
within the program.

with a
files
printer

Five. Up to six ‘frames’
page are possible.
comparison, Quill has
frames - header, footer and
text bady. TEIT8?7 can have
four columns in the text body

ona
For
three

You enter the text as a single
column as wide as one column
on the finished page. At
print time, TEXT87 calculates
which lines are to be printed
and they are printed in
calumns as tn a newspaper

Thus if the page is
long, ta be dtvided
columns, lines 1 and

oo lines
into 2
61 are

BOSTUG Sinclair/Tinmex Sewsletter

printed in a single pass with
the column space between
Next lines 2 and 62 are
printed and so on to the end
of the page. Page twa has

lines 121 and 181 on the firet

line. And so on to the end of
the file. .

Not everything is peaches and
cream. The 20 page documen—
tation is sketchy on details
and doesn’t always cover
features that suddenly are

otfered in the prompts.

TEXTS? is rich in defaults but

offers no overwrite pratec—
tion. No file handling ita
otfered within the program.

You must revert to SuperBASIC
(with CTRL-C) to run a direc~
tory or copy or delete files.
Thie is a minor annoyance only
because | am so used to the
ease of using these features
in Quill. In truth leaving
out such features lets you
access the full potential of
any front enda or Toolkits
that you have installed.

TEXT&7 is not yet easy to use.
It has many marvelous features
I do not yet understand and
have nat manttoned here,
including the chaice of
setting parameters in either
inches or the metric system!
It ts tedious to set up your
working copy with the limited
instructions, and the prompta
are somtimes elegant, some-
times maddenly obscure.

Yet, ! have realised that with
practica it will become ny
wordprecessor of choice and 1
will not begrudge (in time>
the six months delay it took
to arrive after ! had sent my
£40.00 (no US$, no VISA> to
Software87, London. UK. £10
more for the multiple fants
and the font modifier, (£1.00
@ USS 1.90).

Peter Hale

May/June 1988

2068 TBLECOMMUNICATIONS BOTES

The following is an overview
of telecommunications bardware
and software available for the
T/S 2066 and how it all works.

For modems, the 2006 user has
several options. The Wastridge
2050 300 baud modem is still
available through several T/S
dealers, but anyone who hasn't
yet purchased 4 modem should
consider a standard 300/1200
baud modem now that software
ig available to support 1200
baud. The best buy te the
Avatex 1200 ‘smart moden’,
fron Megatronice for about
$65.00. They also have the
1200HC, a Hayes compatible
version with the full Hayes
command set, for just over
$100.00, Call 1-800-232-6342
with a VISA card or write
Megatronics at PO BOX 3660,
Logan, UT 84321.

Connecting a 2068 to a ‘etand-
ard' modem like the Avatex
requires an RS-232 interface
such as the Z-SIO card, a 3.5
x 5" circuit board that plugs
into the rear expansion bues
of the 2068. A feed-through
connector lets you piggyback
other pertpherais onto the
Z-SId. The right edge of the
card has a standard 25 pin
RS-232 connector.

The Z-SIO comes in kit trom Ed
Grey Enterprises far $29.95.

The number is 213-759-7406 cr
213-516-6648, or write PO Box
2186, Inglewood, CA 90305.

The last piece of hardware you

need is the cable. Any IBM
compatible maie-to-male cable
will do (for $12.00 extra, it

comes with the Avatex modem).

The software to drive thia
hardwara 1s a terminal program

called Specterm64 Ver 4.1.
There are versions for tape,
ILO Safe Disk W2.3 ar
higher), AERCO FD-68 disk, and
Larken LKDOS system. Ali work

BoSTUG Sinclair/Timsgex Bewsietter

at 3000/1200 baud with the
Z-SIO (There is also a version
tor the WC 2050 300 baud
modem). The software teatures
4 64 column display, X-Modem &
ASCI1 file transfer protacale,
31+ K buffer, and a 7K Baaic
area that may be customised to
Personal needs. All in all
it's a very fast and elegant
terminal progran.

Another terminal program,
2Term-64, works tn conjunction
with the OS-64 cartridge and
the WC 2050 modam. It uses
the 2068's high resolution
video mode «o text is display-
ed witb greater clarity than

with Specterm 64 (which uaes
four-pixel) wide characters to
fit 64 columns onata a 32
column screen).

Z2Term 64 supports full-size
printers via ao ABRCO, Tasman,
or Atj printer interface, and
it has X-Nodem protocol. I an
not certain about 1200 baud

Operation, but it is incompat-
tble with the Z-SIO interface.
Zebra Systems was carrying
2Term-64 for $29.95. Call
(718) 296-2385 or write to
78-06 Jamaica Ave, Woodhaven,
WY 12421 for iuformation.

(Wote- Larry Kenny of Larken
Electronics is working on a
version of ZTerm to work
directly witb the LEDOS
System. ZTerm-64 is available
for most other disk systems. >)
These two terminal prograns
have made NTERM and MTERM II
obsolete. Anyone still ueaing
them ehould consider upgrading
to one of the 64 column
packages. Since Telenet has
begun Phasing out most of
their 300 baud outdialing
modems in favor af 1200 baud,
I would recommend Specterm 64
over ZTerm if you use (or plan

to use) PC-Pureuit. The
benefits are well worth it.
~Jim Rodlin

~10-

May/June 1966

SuperBaSiC for BEGINNERS
PRIET

Continuing from last month's
column, we move on to PRIST.

Most of us have a pretty clear
idea of what the KEYWORD PRIET
does.

E.g. PRINT “HELLO”
sends the word HELLO

to the

upper left hand corner of the
right hand screen.
Correspondingly, a=10: PRIET a

will send the value ten to the
position just under HELLO.

The use of the word PRINT is
sometimes confusing because it
does not “print” to a printer.
The history of the evolution
of the term to apply to screen
displays is interesting but
not heipfui here. At the end
of the tutorial we will demon-
strate printing to a printer.

Many other kaywords are die-
guised PRINT procedures so we
will discuss nine of them.

aT x,y moves the print posi-

tion to the co-ordinate x,y.

Uniike other Sinclair BASICs,

AT cannot be combined with

PRINT. as in PRINT AT x,y;

“HELLO”. It must be written:
aT x.y: PRINT "“HELLO*

CLS “prints” a ecreen of blank
spaces and moves the cursor to
position 0,0.

DIR prints
mediun, the

the name of the
number of free
sectors, the total available
sectors and the names of all

the files on the medium.

{WK var prints all subsequent
characters in a chosen color
where var = 0 to 7.

IMKBYS (var) prints the char-
acter pressed on the: keyboard.

BOSTUG Sinclair/Timex Newsletter 7

INPUT aS prints the string ‘or
@ prints the naumber) entered
at the keyboard and assigns it
to the variable a$ (a).

LIST prints the SuperBASIC
program currently in memory to
the left screen.

PAPER var “prints” the back—
ground of the screen a chosen
color 1f followed by CLS.

TO x; when following the word
PRIET, moves the cursor to the
xth column.

None of these PRIET commands
would work if QDOS did not
open channels to the screen.

On powerup QDOS opens three
chabnels, numbered zero (#0),
one <#L) and two (#2), on the
screen and defines them as
three windows, the wide,
harrow cansole at the botton,
and the white and red screens
side by side above.

All the PRINTing Keywords,
except one, are assigned a
default channel #1, called the
execution window, the right

hand one in monitor MODE 4.

The exception for defaults ts
LIST which has channel #2 ag
its default. Thus the program
can be listed on the left and
its output viewed on the right
when run.

E.g. PRIEST “HELLO” is the same
as PRIET#1, “HELLO”. PRINT#2,
“HELLO” behaves differently.

CLS clears only the HELLO in
the righthand window. CLS#2
clears the lefthand HELLO.

#0 defaults to the
window on the bottom
connected ta the

Channel
console
and is
keyboard.

When printing to other than a
default channel, it is nec-

essary to specify the channel
with the "#" follawed by the
i -

May/June 1986

channel number, followed by a
comma. SuperBASIC ignores any
Spaces you may tnsert for

visual clarity ina listing.
Some Practical Applications

You may view the directories
of both drives simultaneously
at follows:

B.g. DIR@2, mivi_ : DIR mdv2_
will display the directory of
drive 1 in the left screen and
the directory of drive 2 in
the right screen.

You may make paper printouts
of directories or listings by

opening a channel to the
printer:
B.g. OPEW#3, serl (the printer
port)

DIR#3, miv2_

LIST#3

CLOSE#3
will print the directory of
drive 2 to the printer and
then will print the current
SuperBASIC listing in memory.
Also, at you saved the
program, you may

COPY miv2_fred to serl

to print a listing of a Super-
BASIC program called fred.

Some Exercives

#1 PAPER 4: CLS: PRINT "HELLO"
PAPER 2: PRIET "HELLO*
#3 PAPER 6: 1NE 2:PRINT “HELLO”
#4 FOR n=0 TO 6 STEP 2
PAPER oa: IMK nt2
PRIEST n; TO n; “HELLO”
HED FOR on

Don't forget to actually
practice these few examples 60
that your hands learn what
your brain has just learned.

- Peter Hale

BoSTUG Sinclatir/Timex Newsletter

‘messages,

QUERY ON ABACUS

When using ABACUS on the QL I
can ORBER . the rows on a
spreadsheet ‘by selecting a
column on which to Order, but
1! cannot order the columns by
selecting a row.

How can [| get around this
situation? Alternatively, ia
there any way to rotate the
spreadsheet 90° so that the
rows becoma colunns and the

columns rows?

- Sherm Waterman
S. Yarnouthport, MA

GOUIG ONLINE, T/S STYLE

Okay, so you have purchased a
modem and terminal program for

your computer, read the user
manuals, and are ready to go.
What next? Or perhaps you're

wondering what 411 the fuss ie
about and you’re not sure if
you want to go online. Let ma
describe what you're missing.

The most notable aspect of the
world of telecommunications ie
the extraordinary number of
computer BBSea ‘out there’.
It 16 estimated that there are
over 1,000 BBSes in the United
States and Canada and most are
privately operated.

Typically a BBS ia a email
computer equipped with a
modem, disk drives and usually

a printer. Although features
vary between BBSes, most store
bulletins, and some-
times programs, that any com
puter user can access. Most
BBSes are also free.

In the
there is
informative,
source of
computer

Sinclair/Timex realm,
no more dynamic,
and interesting
support for your
than on the various
BBSes and online services.
They are a continugus source
of free software, news, and
friendly advice from the other
T/S users who already use

- 12 -

Mey/iJune 1988

modems with their computers.

I recentiy called the North-
Shore Sinclair BBS in Chicago
whera 1 downloaded saveral
files including back copies of
their newsletter, Nite-Timaes,
and an updatad list ot
Timex/Sinclair BBSes. I read
messages left by oather users
and left a couple of my awn
including questions on rumors
about plans to form a national
T/S user group.

l expect somegna will leave
replys to my messages over the
Rext few days. Meanwhile, I
will be calling other BBSea to
see what's going on in the
reat of the T/S world.

You can reach a lot of people

who share your special
iaterests through bulletin
boards. I am involved in an
effort to organize ao special
interest group on artificial
Intelligence for Sinclair
users. By leaving messages on

BBSes to bring attention to
the subject, | located others
who were tnterested in joining
the new group. By taking a
similar approach, you can find
information about nearly any
interest. BBSes put you in
contact with people from ail
over tha country.

"Waitt oa minute! I can't afford
long distance calls ta Chicago
er Los Angeles every night!
What am | supposed to do?”

There is a low cost
called PC-Pursuit.
modem users uake UBLINITED
long-distance calle to major
cities during aff-peak hours,
for 4 flat $25.00 per month.
The ane-time registration fee
of $25.00 is waived for BCS
members. (Weekdays, between 7
amand 6 pm, PC-Pursuit is
$10.50 ta $14.00 per bour.)

optian,
that lets

I regularly use PC-Pursuit to
call favorite Bulletin Boards
ta cittes around the country.

BoSTUG Sinclair/Timex Newsletter

l keep tn touch with peaple
and ideas that interest ma for
less than the price af dinner
<for ona) once a month.

For information on PC-Pursuit,
call 1-800-835-3638 (689-5700
in Virginia) or write Telenet
Communications carp, 12490
Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston,
Va 22096. The PC-Pursuit bul-
lettin board is 1-800-635-3001
(689-2987 in Virginia).

Bulletin boards are one aspect
of telecommunications although
for many (myself included),
they were the reason to have a
modem in the PIRST place.

A full description of commer-

cial onltne services such as
Compuserve is beyond the scope
of thie column, but perhaps
another reader wihl submit an
article about CIS or The
Source and Sinclair computers
chint! hint! htntt>. Tilt

next issue, Keap On Timexing!
~Jim Rodlin
Sysop, BCS TINEWARP BBS
CALENDAR NOTES
The next General meeting of
the Sinclair Timex User Group
will be at 7:00 pm oon
Wednesday, June 165, at the
UMass Harborside Campus, room
1-061 Wheatly Butlding.

There will be no July meeting.

The next QL subgroup maating
will be on Saturday, July 2,
at the home of John Mitchell
in Westwood. Jobo'’s number 1s
326-5420, to call for
direct tons.

FLASH! SIR CLIVE SINCLAIR Will
be the featured speaker at the
June 22 General meeting of the
Boston Computer Soctety.

See the new Z86 laptop in
person at the Wew England Life
Hall starting at 7:30 pm.

May/June 1948

SING 4 SONG OF SILLINESS

(From the D-FW DATA Expansion,
the journal of the Dallas Fort
Worth T/S User Group, citing
‘The Prairte Home Companton’
as the source)

To the tune of
Ganeral’
Penzance’

*aA Modern Major
from ’The Pirates of

I've built a better modei than
the one at Data General

Por data bases animal and
vegetable and mineral.

My OS handles CPUe of muiti-
plex duality.

My PL-1 compiler chows impree-
sive functionality.

My storage system's better
than magnetic co-polarity.
You needn't even bother check-
ing out a bit for parity.
There isn't any reason to
install non-static floor
matting.

My disk drive has capacity for
variable formatting.

I feel compelled to mention
what I know to be a gloating
point;

There's lots of apace in
mamory for variables floating
point.

In short, for input vegetable,
animal and mineral

1 built a better model than
the one at Data General.

The IBM new home computer's
nothing more than germinal.
At Prime they still have
problems with an interactive
terminal.

While Tandy's done a lousy job
with operations boolean,

At Wang the byte capacity'’s
too small to fit a Coolie in.

BOSTUG Sinclair/Timex Newsletter

Intel’s major finances are
something of the troubled
sort.

The Timex/Sinclair crashes
when you implement a bubble
sort.

All DEC investors soon will
find they haven't spent their
money well.

And need |] even mention Wix-
dorf, Univac and Hanaywall?

By striving to eliminate all
source code that's repetitive
I’ve brought my benchmark
standings to results that are
competitive.

In short, for input vegetabie,
animal and mineral

I built a better model than
the ona at Data General.

In fact I’ve a Winchester of
minimum diameter,

When I can call & subroutine
of infinite parameter,

When I can point to registers
and keep thetr current map
around,

And when / can prevent the
need for mystifying
wrap-around.

Vben I can update record
blocks with minimun of
suffering,

And when I can afford to use
100k for buffering,

When I've performad «a matrix
sort and tested the addition
rate,

You'l1 marvel at the speed of
my asyncronous tranemiesion
rate.

Though all my better programs
that salf-raference
recursively,

Have only been obtained
through expert spying done
subversively.

Still for input vegetable,
animal and mineral
1} built a better mode} than
the ane at Data General.

Sg = May/June 1986